Welcome back to NBA Star Index – a weekly indicator of the players who most control the buzz in the league. Reminder: inclusion in this list is not necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you are attracting the attention of the NBA world. Furthermore, this is not a classification. The players listed are not in a specific order with respect to the buzz they are generating. This column will be published every week until the end of the regular season.
The Nets made a mistake by not getting Sexton dirty when they had three to five seconds to play in overtime. Kyrie Irving, who was making his first appearance since James Harden joined the Nets, was wrapped up in him and had every chance of contacting Sexton before he got into his shooting move and stopped him from attempting a potential shot. . But Irving let him go, and Sexton got it right.
From that point on, Sexton fired Kyrie and the Nets to the sound of 20 consecutive overtime points. Altogether, Sexton ended with a career record of 42 points on 16 of 29 field, including 5 of 11 of 3, to go with five bags, five assists and two steals. Sexton averages 27 points per night on 53 percent of shots, including 50 percent of 3 in less than five attempts per game as his breakout season continues.
Embiid is on the short list of MVP candidates at the start of the season. In one of the most fun games of the season so far, Embiid added 42 points and 10 rebounds in 12 out of 19 shots, in the 76ers’ 117-109 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday.
Embiid is doing this on both ends, as usual, but the balance he found in terms of the different forms of attack is really attractive. Doc Rivers is placing it in different places on the ground so that defenses cannot be established in one approach. Not only is he living on the block, but he is also not content with jumping. He’s doing a little bit of everything: deep postings, occasional 3, medium-range jumpers as the defenders retreat, and his face-up game is a great weapon with his ability to put the ball on the ground.
One thing Philly is doing a lot that I like is something like an inverted post-up, where essentially the dowel goes down and delivers what is effectively a post entry pass back to the top where Embiid has a mismatch after a pick-and -roll switch. From there, Embiid puts his back on the smaller defender and throws the basket back inside out.
Another good wrinkle that we saw before Philly and will probably continue to see: the low pick-and-roll with Ben Simmons and Embiid. While the majority of pick-and-roll you see happens outside the basket, Simmons and Embiid occupy the same low areas and occasionally perform this action typically spaced in phone booths.
This really works because when the choice is set to high, Simmons is not a threat to present himself as a sniper. But when Embiid sets the low choice, Simmons can easily go out for a short jump hook and therefore has to be honored. This leaves Embiid with a one-on-one seal at close range for a bucket against whom Simmons is protecting, who will almost always be someone too small to handle the Embiid so close to the basket.
Irving’s return marked the first time we saw the Big Three in Brooklyn and, offensively, it looked pretty good. Irving was aggressive from the start and often, and his first bucket back was his typical artwork.
Irving finished with 37 points from 15 of 28 shots. That’s a lot of pitches for a guy who’s been away for a while, but it’s likely to be that way: one of the stars in Brooklyn will be in the background most nights, as there aren’t enough pitches for everyone to get a full plate. On Wednesday, it was James Harden, who still finished with 21 points, but gave only 14 shots and added 12 assists.
It was not a bad first week with the Nets for Harden, who became the first player in NBA history to record a 30-point triple-double on his debut with a new team, followed by 34 points, 12- help in his second game, when the Nets eliminated the Bucks in a potential (very early and irrelevant) preview of the Eastern Conference finals.
As mentioned, Harden took second place against Cleveland, deciding instead to score a triple-double from 21-12-10. Harden already looks perfectly comfortable navigating his new star-studded ecosystem, balancing when to strike in isolation and when to keep the ball moving or simply postpone and become a spacer.
When the Nets need a bucket, Harden and Durant playing pick-and-roll seem like the right option outside of direct isolation, and it’s a pretty indefensible option.
Durant’s sensational season continues as he scored – ho-hum – 38 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and four blocks against Cavs. Honestly, it looked like he barely started to sweat. Scoring is as easy for Durant as it ever was. It is simply remarkable to watch.
There has never been a gunner so talented in the history of basketball who could, in a strange way, live in the background of more voluminous and daring attackers. He did this for years with Russell Westbrook. He made the most efficient basketball song in history, considering all things, with Stephen Curry.
With Durant, there never seems to be an opportunity cost for his attack. When Harden and / or Kyrie dive into their bag, there is a palpable feeling that their production and use are taking place at the expense of other people’s involvement. Durant just stands there for 40 minutes and you look up and he has 40 points. He puts his foot down when he needs to, but he transforms this dynamic of subtle aggression into an art.
“It felt right. It looked perfect. It felt like we belonged together,” said Durant of playing alongside Irving and Harden for the first time in an NBA uniform. “It looked like this journey together would be fun.”
Curry has the Warriors at an amazing 8-6 mark coming into play on Thursday. If the playoffs started today, they would be the fifth seed of the west. After the way the season started with two humiliating outbursts at the hands of Brooklyn and Milwaukee, Golden State is undoubtedly thrilled to have won eight of its last 12 games.
Curry is on the hunt for the MVP, despite a slow shooting start by his standards (45 percent of the field, 37 percent of three). He is fifth in the league in scoring, and still does so with typical efficiency; his 125.1 points for 100 attempts to shoot put him in the league’s 97th percentile, according to Cleaning the Glass.
On Monday, the Warriors recovered from a 19-point deficit to stun the Lakers, and Curry found his vintage form just in time, scoring eight of his 26 points in the past 3:40, including this nasty stab at Anthony Davis: